Our pup is noticeably calmer when we put his harness or shirt on. I personally dislike dogs wearing clothes (no offense to anyone) but my wife thinks it's cute! She bought the shirt when she went to the mall with a friend and when I came home from work I came home to a puppy wearing it...

Anyway, is this common? He will literally go from hyper, running around all over, being mouthy, to being absolutely calm. In fact when we put either of them on him and put him back on the ground he literally will not move for maybe 30 seconds then he moves very slowly. Most of the hyper behavior is gone and the mouthy behavior is pretty gone as well. Unfortunately, he does not "sit" on command either when wearing the shirt or harness.

My guess is that he hates both to the point where he feels restricted and because he hates them so much he ignores us. We put the harness on him quite a bit lately to try to get him use to it wearing it so we can take him on more walks.

We've noticed the same effect. Our guys crazy level does seem to be tied in with their amount of clothing. Katsu always had some sort of outfit since day one so she's used to it, Tanuki used to act like your guy though when we'd dress him in something. He's gotten used to it and it doesn't bother him anymore though. They usually will both have their harnesses on most of the time during the day. They still play and get a little crazy but it's nothing compared to naked shiba time.

Right before bed we take all their stuff off and let them come in the bedroom with us for a half hour or so to just chill out and relax, but they run around and play like maniacs.

How old is your guy?

I wouldn't say he "hates" his harness. If he's still young he's still getting used to them. Part of his training is learning that he has to sit in diffrent situations, so it may take him a few times to get that he still has to listen to you when he's clothed or in a harness.

AWE46M3, you just described Suzaku to a T. And because he's always been a backyard dog (we just let him out when he needs to go out), walks are purely recreational, and he's not excited to see the harness. He doesn't obey any commands in the harness, mostly because he's lost the will to live. If I left him in the harness, there would be no zoomies for the whole day. So we treat heavily when we put him in the harness, and then immediately take him out for a fun and exciting walk. Despite the huge temptation to pop him in it for a few hours of Good Dog at Home.

Look at Temple Grandin's work on the link between animals and Autism, especially in her book "Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism." In case you're not familiar with her, Temple Grandin is an autistic woman with a PhD in Animal Sciences. She's a Professor of Animal Sciences at Colorado State University. Her work with the calming effects of certain kinds of body pressure began with her own experiments on ways to calm herself, as an autistic person. It has been used for both humans and animals. Personally, I find Dr. Grandin's work fascinating and would highly recommend all her books to anyone who is interested in both Autism and animal behavior.

Hello, Recently I got a winter coat for Suki (only to be used when temperatures are below -20C). But you are describing the same behavior that Suki had. She will go out and walk very slowy, but for some reason there is no way that she will seat while wearing it. At the park, I noticed the zoombie thing too(for about 30 sec).

I'm glad to know these behavior seems to be a shiba thing (I thought she was sick or something else).

Jack's the same way. He's better with his harness, but still gets a little whiny now and then. But you put a coat on him and he is a statue. I thought the belly strap was too low and he was upset he might get it wet from pottying - he goes #1 standing up when I can get him to walk with a coat - but I really think he likes being nekid.

Toby goes NUTS when I put his collar on him....spinning, talking, jumping, nipping at things. He gets excited about the harness, but not nearly as much. He's better on walks in his harness, just calmer. He will wear it around the house if I leave it on, but he keeps trying to shake it off, and I can tell he's very happy when I call him to me to remove it. He stands still for taking off his harness better than for anything else.

One thing that helped in the beginning with harnessing him was to put my arm through it and pet him with that hand, then while petting his head, slide the harness down my arm and onto his body. He still screams a little sometimes when I put his leg through, but he doesn't pull away at all.

Our little guy is 12 weeks old. I think "hate" was too strong of a word, he dislikes the shirt more than the harness but he is clearly not pleased when he's wearing either. He does "sit" when in his harness, however, not outside on walks - we're still working on that. The shirt, forget about it... He hasn't been vocal or anything but his facial expressions are pretty telling... haha

Annie doesn't mind me putting her in anything. Lia is a totally different story. She hates clothes and will pout until we take them off, no matter what we are doing, even if we take her for a walk (which is her absolute favoritest thing ever!). Same goes for a harness or a halti. A harness, which I have tried a few times to walk with her since she pulls and has once even somehow slipped a martingale collar makes me crouch down low, no matter how much I praise her, or how many treats I try to give while wearing it.

The halti, well she hates that so much, when she was younger and we were trying to train her to not chase the cats, I would put it on her and she would just sit for a bit. Now, if she is getting to be too crazy with the cats, I just have to show her the halti, OR open the drawer the halti is in to get her to calm down. We never used it as a long term punishment since I don't believe leaving it on her for a long time would have impacted her. We seriously only used it for five minute "time outs". We can still use as a time out if she needs it. I just leave it out for her to see for a few minutes and she is subdued, however as she gets older she has chilled out quite a bit with the cats, though she still tries to be a referee.

Thankfully we live in a place that doesn't get too cold, so I don't try and force clothes on her. If it gets close to 0 I will make her wear a coat, but at that point we aren't really going out for much other than quick potty breaks anyway.

I noticed since we moved to the easy walk harness, walks have become increasing difficult as well as her behavior has been completely opposite of her normal behavior (playful puppy) to a calmer, mellow, less active puppy.

In terms of walking she will just sit and not move, even after pick her up and putting her down with a running start. We moved to the harness hoping that it would help her stop choking herself and while it has, it seems to have unlocked another problem.

When playing indoor, with a harness she will half chase a ball and then walk away. With no harness or collar she will run at full speed to grab the ball and not let go.

Should we go back to the collar or stick to the harness. Any ways to get her to feel more comfortable and act normal in her harness.

Keep using the harness, she's just being fussy about it. My 2 year old still acts like she can't move when I first put it on. I made the mistake of doing something similar to what you do with mine - except in my case it's the collar. My dog hates having the collar on and I kind of did it to myself because she acted all pissy about it as a puppy so I never left it on her. Now she can't stand wearing it at all. It's a Shiba thing - stick to your guns and use the harness.